Creating a Connection with Consumers: Developing a Customer-Centric Approach

According to the global digital agency Wunderman, 79% of consumers want brands to take their interests into account before considering a purchase. Competition is increasingly fierce, and informed customers are becoming more demanding and impatient! In this increasingly complex and uncertain environment, companies must adapt and place customers at the center of their marketing initiatives if they wish to remain competitive. Discover in this article the vision of customer centricity and its advantages, then the key steps to implement an effective customer-centric approach.

Definition of the Customer-Centric Concept and the Benefits Related to Implementing This Approach

First, let’s revisit the definition of the customer centricity concept. Being customer-centric means placing the customer at the heart of all the company’s activities.

In the digital age, there are many marketing techniques to reach your target audience. However, very few of these methods truly take into account the expectations and needs of consumers who increasingly demand personalized experiences.

The objectives of customer centricity are to succeed in building a strong customer relationship that meets their aspirations in order to sustainably maximize their satisfaction.

To do this, it is crucial to think about your customers at every touchpoint of the sales journey and to prioritize all your actions based on the impact they will have on them.

Being customer-centric brings many benefits to your business and will allow you to:

1. Anticipate Trends and Seize New Growth Opportunities

In a customer-centric approach, you are totally “attentive to your customers. Every review left on a product page, every comment on social media whether positive or negative is important and must be utilized. By being centered on your customers, you are able to detect and anticipate their needs and expectations. You are constantly on the lookout and are able to spot upcoming trends, which allows you to” be more reactive, more relevant, and to guide your decisions towards new promising development niches.

2- Develop Customer Loyalty and Turn Your Customers into Brand Advocates

Retaining customers in the long term is essential to continue growing a business. In a customer-centric approach, you don’t rely solely on customer service to increase customer satisfaction. You take a more comprehensive approach, as you integrate their opinions and feedback at every moment, at every stage of the customer journey. You are attentive to their habits and are able to eliminate all sources of irritation.

By acting and thinking this way, you sustainably increase your customers’ satisfaction. And we know that a satisfied customer is a loyal customer! They can become an ambassador for your brand within their circle and on social media. There is no better advertising than a satisfied customer who spontaneously recommends your products or services to their close ones and social circles.

3- Stand Out from the Competition and Gain Market Share

Being customer-centric is a real advantage to distinguish yourself from competing brands. Nowadays, consumers demand an individualized experience. Faced with the multitude of more or less similar offers present in the market, it is imperative to offer a unique and impeccable purchasing experience to your customers if you wish to attract and retain them. In a customer-centric approach, you are in a constant process of improving the customer experience and your products and services. You stand out from competing brands through exceptional customer relationships, and not just through the quality of your products.

Key Steps to Create a Customer-Centric Approach

Now that you are fully convinced of the importance of being customer-centric to sustain your business, here’s what you need to implement:

1- Know Your Customers Perfectly and Continuously Improve Your Knowledge

This is obviously the foundation! If you want to be customer-centric and place your customers at the center of your strategy, you must know them inside out. Listen to them daily and continuously. Collect as much data about them as possible, whether it’s from social media, their interactions with different services, their buying habits and behaviors, through reviews and comments they leave online… At each stage of the sales journey, it’s possible to collect valuable information that will help you better define who they are and what they need. You’ll also be able to anticipate the main risks of dissatisfaction and implement corrective or preventive actions if necessary.

If you’re missing information to perfect your customer knowledge, ask them questions! Whether it’s through a quantitative study, sending a satisfaction questionnaire, conducting surveys on social media, organizing product tests, or setting up a review module. Using a CRM software will be particularly useful for centralizing all interactions with your target audience.

Thus, Trustt is a SaaS (Software as a Service) dedicated to community product marketing that ensures the commercial success of consumer goods brands by bringing them closer to their consumers. Trustt supports you in your customer-centric approach and allows you to collect fresh data on your customers such as:

– consumer insights from quantitative studies;

– UGC and affinity-based influence outcomes;

– enriched and qualified customer reviews.

2- Identify Your Best Customers and Segment Your Customer Base

In a customer-centric strategy, all your decisions are made based on your customers. For this strategy to be profitable, you must first identify your best customers, i.e., the most profitable ones, and focus your actions on them. How much do they bring in throughout your relationship? To answer this question, you can use the following key indicator: Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). This KPI corresponds to the sum of expected discounted profits over a customer’s lifetime. Indeed, it’s important to ask yourself this question because a regular customer who buys in small amounts can turn out to be much more profitable than one who buys in very large quantities occasionally. Thanks to the lifetime value, you can segment your customers based on the revenue they generate and thus implement marketing communication campaigns adapted to each segment.

3- Create Connections and Boost Your Audience’s Engagement

Customer centricity means that your customers are at the heart of your decisions. For your audiences to get involved with you and adhere to your brand’s universe, you must interact with them. To do this, you can regularly offer them quality content such as information on topics they’re interested in, advice, fun and entertaining content in the form of blog articles, newsletters, social media posts, etc. Invite them to react by leaving comments, sharing your content, in order to create engagement. In return, listen to them and always respond to their questions quickly. This is how you will create a relationship of trust and a strong proximity with your audiences. Content marketing plays a big role in the customer experience, don’t neglect it! Based on your ideal customers, define appropriate scenarios to deliver the right message, to the right target, at the right time.

4- Develop a Customer-Centered Culture and Train Your Employees

To succeed in being totally customer-centric, it requires completely rethinking your company’s organization. Indeed, every action, every decision taken in each of your company’s departments must be customer-centered. The main concern of all stakeholders in the company (management, employees, executives, as well as suppliers and distributors) must be to listen to the voice of the customers. For this to truly work, this culture must be instilled and supported by management, as it’s a profound mutation of the thinking system. From now on, the company is no longer centered on the product, but on the customers. This must be part of its values. For this mindset to be fully integrated by everyone, it’s necessary to train each member of the organization in this approach.